Buddhapada (The Buddha's Footprints): Two Monks Venerating the the Buddha's Footprints under the Bodhi Tree
relief carving
gray schist
height:
not mounted
Gandhara (Afghanistan/Pakistan)
circa 1st century CE
This relief carving is a fine example of Buddhist aniconism, the representation of the Buddha symbolically, without human form, a common feature of the earliest Buddhist art. This carving may in fact be an aniconic representation of the Buddha meditating under the Bodhi Tree, one of the main events in the sacred biography of the historical Buddha.